Minority Parents Quietly Embrace School Choice

A generation gap seems to be emerging among
African-Americans when it comes to opinions about school choice.

The critics of vouchers and other free-market-style approaches to
education should be able to rally African-Americans and Latinos against
the movement for alternatives to traditional public schooling.

After all, the most typical advocates of wide-open school choice are
conservative Republicans and libertarians; the staunchest opponents
tend to be Democratic and liberal, and can usually count on blacks and
Hispanics as political allies.

But in cities where tuition vouchers, charter schools, and
large-scale private scholarships are available, such options have
proved popular and are quietly attracting more minority parents. People
of color are now emerging as vocal and visible leaders in the school
choice movement, and parents are increasingly listening to their
messages.

School choice, its advocates say, can no longer be dismissed as a
white, conservative movement that takes advantage of unwitting minority
families.

"It's easy to make the complaint if all of the folks leading the
school choice movement are white, and all of the complainants are
black," said T. Willard Fair, the president of the Urban League of
Greater Miami, which operates a charter school. "Now, you've got people
on the other side who are credible, who are legitimate, who have a
history of being concerned, and have no economic or political interest
that is obvious."

Proponents of school choice have yet to sway large numbers of
parents of any racial or ethnic background into their camp. About 90
percent of America's students attend public schools. Polls and surveys
on school choice often yield conflicting results. And voters in
California and Michigan soundly defeated voucher initiatives last
year.

Yet there's a strong undercurrent of support for alternatives from
African-Americans and Latinos who have gravitated toward school
choice—from charter schools, which are considered a less radical
step, to publicly financed vouchers that pay for tuition at private
schools. Many minority parents are impatient at what they see as the
plodding pace of school reform; they're concerned that their own
children won't benefit from long-term improvements to the current
public school system.

Some national education-watchers believe that minority parents'
growing interest in school choice demands greater attention.

"This new movement from communities of color and low-income parents
is certainly a threat to leaders in public education," said Warren S.
Simmons, the executive director of the Annenberg Institute for School
Reform in Providence, R.I. "If these parents opt out, who is the
constituency in these urban areas?"

Signs of 'Restlessness'

In Dayton, a total of 6,000 students are expected to be enrolled in
charter schools in that southwestern Ohio city by next fall. About
1,000 more Milwaukee students are using state-financed vouchers to
attend private schools this year, bringing the total number of students
using vouchers to 10,700. The private, New York City-based Children's
Scholarship Fund received 1.25 million applicants for 40,000
scholarships to attend private schools in 1999.

What do those number mean?

"It's a sign of the restlessness with the state of play in public
schools," acknowledged Hugh B. Price, the president of the New York
City-based National Urban League and an opponent of publicly financed
vouchers for private schooling. "I understand the restlessness of
people."

That sign has yet to be addressed by the leadership of civil rights
organizations, politicians, and teachers' unions, argues Terry M. Moe,
the author of Schools, Vouchers, and the American Public.

"Their own constituents—poor people and minorities—are
the ones in the worst schools and the biggest supporters of school
choice," Mr. Moe asserted, citing his research that found that high
percentages of African- Americans, Hispanics, and low-income people
backed vouchers. "Under normal circumstances, they would support their
constituents."

Mr. Moe added that the teachers' unions, whose interests are rooted
in the current system, seem to be the key obstacle to advancing the
dialogue about school choice in political and civil rights
organizations.

But John H. Jackson, the national education director for the
Baltimore, Md.-based National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, said its members want high-quality education in their
neighborhoods, not an unstable "corporate movement," as he calls the
push for choice.

Bob Chase, the president of the National Education Association, also
disputed Mr. Moe's contention. He pointed to the overwhelming support
the union received from minority voters in its successful efforts last
year to defeat the voucher proposals on the statewide ballots in
California and Michigan.

"We're not out of touch," Mr. Chase declared. "According to the
votes, we're not out of touch. Those are the facts."

‘It's a sign of the restlessness with the
state of play in public schools.’

Hugh B.
Price,

President,

National Urban League

While Mr. Moe conceded that the unions were unlikely to change their
positions on vouchers, he said that in the case of civil rights groups,
older leaders would be replaced by a younger generation more supportive
of such options.

In fact, new organizations have emerged during the past year to take
up the charge for minority parents who support a wide range of choices
in education. The Black Alliance for Educational Options, which reports
a membership of 1,000 people and 23 chapters across the country, was
founded in Milwaukee last year to push for school choice and public
school improvement.

Kaleem Caire, the president of BAEO, which is now located in
Washington, said that his organization's base is growing while the
NAACP's base is aging. BAEO launched a national advertising campaign
this year promoting the benefits of vouchers and charter schools.
("Black Alliance Weighs in
With Pro-Voucher Campaign," May 30, 2001.)

"If black folks sit on the sidelines of the school reform effort,"
Mr. Caire said, "we're going to be left behind again."

Similarly, the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options,
which was formed this year, hopes to help Hispanics gain access to
vouchers, charter schools, and magnet schools to improve students'
academic achievement.

Robert B. Aguirre, who is a board member of the San Antonio
Children's Educational Opportunity Foundation, which provides privately
financed vouchers for children living in that city, founded the
Hispanic council. The new organization must also be concerned about the
quality of public education, he said, since most Hispanic children
attend public schools.

Still, Mr. Aguirre, a local businessman, added that the focus of the
Hispanic council is clear: "We're not concerned about the system. We're
concerned about the kids."

Charter School Push

As such groups add a new voice to school choice advocacy, some civil
rights organizations and community leaders are helping to establish
charter schools for minority students. Some school choice advocates say
this trend shows that they are warming to education alternatives.

For example, several local affiliates of the National Urban League
operate charter schools. NEA affiliates, with support from the national
organization, run a handful of charter schools, which are independently
operated public schools.

‘This new movement from communities of color
and low-income parents is a threat to leaders in public
education.’

Warren S. Simmons,

Executive Director,

Annenberg Institute for School
Reform

The Washington-based National Council of La Raza, which advocates on
behalf of Hispanics, has raised $10 million to create and support 50
charter schools nationwide that will be aimed at Latinos. ("Hispanic Group Quietly Initiates
Big Charter Push," Nov. 21, 2001.)

And the ASPIRA Association, a national organization based in
Washington devoted to the education and leadership development of
Puerto Ricans and other Latinos, has five charter schools and plans to
open more.

"We're definitely not abandoning our work with traditional public
schools," said Ariana Quiñones, the education director for La
Raza. "But we do think that sometimes you do need an option that is
more readily available."

'Leaving Door Open'

Johnny Villamil-Casanova, the executive vice president of ASPIRA,
said his organization has worked for 35 years trying to improve public
schools by providing students with mentors and tutors and by training
parents to run for school board seats. He described running charter
schools as a natural extension of that effort, not a departure.

But while support for charter schools in such quarters is growing,
most of the groups involved are wary about government- financed
vouchers, at least for now.

Mr. Price of the Urban League opposes the use of public money for
private schooling because of what he sees as a lack of
accountability.

Although La Raza is opposed to vouchers in their current form
because they often do not cover the entire cost of tuition, Ms.
Quiñones characterized the group's voucher position as "leaving
the door open for discussion." ASPIRA has no official position on
vouchers.

The emergence of the national black and Hispanic organizations
pressing for school choice—and now the National Council of La
Raza's charter school effort—show the development of a school
choice movement independent of the established minority leadership,
said Howard L. Fuller. He is a former superintendent of the Milwaukee
public schools and one of the first prominent African-American
proponents of vouchers and charter schools.

"The 'leadership' is saying one thing, but under that, there's a
movement of people coming to a different opinion," according to Mr.
Fuller, the president of BAEO's board of directors. "Over time, it
reaches the leadership."

‘You've got the minority community beginning
to emerge on this issue.’

Michael
Watson,

Vice President

Children First America

Yet school choice proponents who attempt to show the diversity of
the movement often cite the same names of African-American supporters:
Mr. Fuller, Mr. Fair of the Urban League in Miami, and Dwight Evans, a
Philadelphia Democrat and Pennsylvania state representative.

"It's absolutely a select few" African-Americans, said Michael
Watson, a vice president of Children First America, a Bentonville,
Ark.- based organization that offers private school scholarships to
needy students nationwide.

"But there's a crack in the door and that crack is going to widen,"
he said. "You've got the minority community beginning to emerge on this
issue."

Both Jeanne Allen, the president of the Center for Education Reform,
a Washington-based research and advocacy group that supports school
choice, and Mr. Fuller said they see a change in the minority community
based on reactions at their own speaking engagements.

Ten years ago, Ms. Allen said, she was booed at a National Council
of La Raza event. Now, people at least listen to Ms. Allen and Mr.
Fuller at such gatherings.

What Ms. Allen describes as the myth that a "bunch of white,
public-education-hating people with horns" are pushing school choice is
finally being exposed, she said.

"Little by little, they're introduced to people who don't have
horns," she added.

Mixed Messages

Recent public-opinion surveys about charter schools and vouchers
yield varying results, making it difficult to determine with precision
the prevailing mood about school choice among minorities.

A 1999 survey of 1,200 adults by Public Agenda, a New York
City-based, nonprofit opinion- research group, found that 68 percent of
African-Americans and 65 percent of Hispanics "strongly favor" or
"somewhat favor" government-financed vouchers.

A National School Boards Association-sponsored survey of about 1,211
adults this past May found that 41 percent of the African-Americans
polled "strongly oppose" vouchers, while 19 percent "strongly favor"
them.

The National Urban League's "State of Black America Survey for 2001"
found that 58 percent of the 800 black adults polled said that
education tax dollars should be used solely for public schools. But 52
percent of the respondents favored the creation of charter
schools.

Generation Gap

Meanwhile, a generation gap seems to be emerging among African-
Americans when it comes to opinions about school choice.

A poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a
Washington think tank that focuses on black issues, found that about 57
percent of the African-Americans surveyed supported vouchers, compared
with 49 percent of all of those surveyed of any race. For
African-Americans under age 35, however, the proportion approving of
vouchers climbed to 75 percent. The center did not survey
Hispanics.

A generation gap seems to be emerging among
African-Americans when it comes to opinions about school
choice.

"It's not like black parents or Hispanic parents have some
philosophical preference for alternative types of education settings,"
said David A. Bositis, a senior political analyst for the center. "It's
rather how satisfied they are with local public schools."

Older African-Americans are more pro-government and suspicious of
the conservatives who back school choice, Mr. Bositis pointed out.

Mr. Jackson of the NAACP said the younger African-American
generation did not grow up in a time when black people couldn't eat at
certain restaurants because of their race and were barred in many
states from attending public schools with whites.

"We need to link with our historical past to change the
institutions," he said, rather than forsake the public
system.

Less Committed?

While agreeing that the struggles of previous generations should be
honored, some stress that the social landscape is different today.

African-American parents in their late 20s and early 30s are simply
seeking the best education possible for their children, said Vernard T.
Gant, the director of urban school services for the Association of
Christian Schools International, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based group
representing 3,800 religious schools.

Younger blacks are less committed to institutions and systems, he
said, which is why they often are more accepting of educational options
outside the public schools.

Mr. Gant, who formerly ran private schools in Birmingham, Ala.,
noted that there is a history of black families sending their children
to private schools. His mother, for example, sent Mr. Gant and his four
brothers to a Lutheran school in Mobile until the family could afford
to move to the suburbs and attend public schools there.

But in some quarters, if African-Americans don't see school choice
through "the lenses of the past," said Mr. Fair of the Urban League in
Miami, others in the community believe they have "sold out." Blacks who
are receptive to school choice may be silenced and ostracized, he said,
and meanwhile have no options for their children.

"There has been a paradigm shift, emotionally and psychologically,"
Mr. Fair said of the sentiment in favor of school choice. "We can't
afford to play around."

Impatient With Waiting

Most parents have been waiting patiently for better schools in their
communities, but to no avail, Mr. Simmons of the Annenberg Institute
said. Individual schools have achieved innovation and success, he said,
yet "we're not creating communities of successful schools."

"Most people are unwilling to sacrifice their children to support
their ideology," Mr. Simmons warned.

It is that impatience that has driven more African-Americans and
Hispanics to view school choice as a way to improve their children's
educational opportunities, many observers say.

‘What I really want is for black folks to
take the public schools back and not leave the public
schools.’

Imani Bazzell,

Parent Coordinator,

African Americans for

Accountability in Education

While there must be a multipronged approach to improving education,
Ms. Quiñones of La Raza said, "some communities' needs are so
great, parents aren't willing to wait."

But Mr. Jackson of the NAACP countered that parents must wait for
education reform, especially in the absence of proven alternatives.
Rather than support vouchers, the NAACP launched a national campaign
last month that will work to end racial inequities in public schools,
colleges, and universities.

In a related effort, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators
last week announced legislative strategies to target the achievement
gap between minority students and their white classmates.

And Shirley Igo, the president of the National PTA, cautioned that
parents must ensure that exercising choice "doesn't negatively impact
on the 90 percent of children in public schools."

That may be a difficult responsibility for parents to fulfill in
some communities, such as the nation's capital, which has seen
tremendous growth in charter school enrollment.

"I think the schools in D.C. are in such horrendous shape I could
never begrudge a parent for trying to make the right decision for their
child," said Peggy Cooper Cafritz, the president of the District of
Columbia school board.

While she believes Washington's schools will improve, that will only
happen if the community supports public schools, she said.

"We absolutely have an overarching duty to support public education,
but I don't think it's just an African-American thing or a Jewish
thing," Ms. Cafritz said. "Every single group has benefited from it. As
a nation, we cannot splinter that commitment."

For some African-Americans, as urban districts struggle to reach
their children, charter schools and vouchers are "in the meantime"
solutions, said Imani Bazzell, a parent coordinator with
African-Americans for Accountability in Education, a community group in
Champaign, Ill. Those who are disillusioned with public education, she
said, often decide that they will create their own schools.

"But I'm real nervous about the bedfellows," Ms. Bazzell, the mother
of three public school children, said, alluding to the political
conservatives and corporate leaders who support school choice. "What I
really want is for black folks to take the public schools back and not
leave the public schools."

The Choice Challenge

Striking a precarious balance between providing parents with viable
education alternatives while continuing to support a struggling school
system consumes the Rev. Vanessa Oliver Ward.

Ms. Ward and her husband, the Rev. Daryl Ward, lead the Omega
Baptist Church, one of the largest African-American churches in
Dayton.

Three years ago, the church "adopted" a public elementary school,
where members of the congregation volunteer their time as tutors and
mentors. The church also ran an after-school program for students.

‘I could never begrudge a parent for trying
to make the right decision for their child.’

Peggy Cooper Cafritz,

President,

District
of Columbia

School
Board

Then, last year, Ms. Ward helped open a charter school for middle
school students, although the church membership favored starting a
private religious elementary school. Currently, 150 students, including
one of her children, attend the school, which is housed in the church.
Her other children attend a private school.

Ms. Ward admitted that opening the Omega School of Excellence has
been a "major challenge" because many of the church's 4,000 members are
public school employees. The tension was palpable in the city as the
district's enrollment decreased by about 4,700 children since 1996, and
charter schools attracted more students, she said.

Still, the 19-year-old church's young congregation was willing to
try something new.

While Ms. Ward is the charter school's director, her congregation
continues to play a visible role in the school district. This fall, an
Omega Baptist Church member was part of a slate of successful "reform-
minded" candidates that was elected to Dayton's school board.

"We felt such urgency that we had to address the issue of our
children not being educated," Ms. Ward said about starting the charter
school. "We have to find a solution.

"But at the same time, you have to support the public school
district."

Funding for this story was provided in part by the Ford
Foundation, which helps underwrite coverage of the changing definition
of public schooling.

The Center for Education says
that the data from its 2000-2001 nationwide
survey of charter schools "reveals that charters are actually
serving students who are largely underserved in the traditional public
school environment: at-risk students, minority students, and low-income
students." (The full
report on the survey requires Adobe's Acrobat
Reader.)

Read an executive
summary of the National School Board Association-sponsored survey
on public attitudes toward school vouchers, conducted in May 2001. The
survey found that "[57] percent of African American's oppose vouchers,
including 41 percenter who 'strongly oppose' vouchers." (Requires
Adobe's
Acrobat Reader.) Part of NSBA's Voucher Strategy Center.

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